Song Of The Rushan
by Starquilter57
Summary: Mostly OC with a bit of Spock, this is the story of Nordu the Leethrian, the butterfly-like being who helps Spock recover from the Vulcan Flu! Complete!


I do not own Star Trek, any of the canon characters, nor do I make any profit from these writings. However, Nordu is all mine!

**Song Of The Rushan**

The Leethrians were a beautiful and peaceful race, possessing an exoskeleton resembling silver skin. They had amber-colored eyes and hair that ranged from teal to deep purple. Their strong bodies were long and slender, having a humanoid appearance. When not in use, they kept their wings folded close to their bodies, where they assumed the same silver color as the skin. They could communicate telepathically with themselves and many other species.

Leethrians extended their wings to show emotion, communicate with each other in song, attract a mate, and of course, to fly. When extended, the wings resembled those of a butterfly, changing color with their owner's moods and activities.

Once there were millions, their songs filling the air as they spread their beautiful wings against the violet sky of Zerithu. However, they shared their world with two other races, the Canii and Odynei, each bent on destroying the other.

The Canii were warm blooded and covered in thick, short gray hair. Though they walked upright on two legs, their sharp teeth and long snouts gave them a wolf-like appearance. They were so very different than the cold-blooded Odynei with their compound eyes, red scales and long tails, who walked on eight legs. Both species thought themselves entitled to sole ownership and mastery of their planet, believing it to be a divine right given to them by their respective deities.

The Canii built bombs to destroy the cities built into sides of the high mountains where only the Odynei could climb. They did not consider the fact that the Leethrians laid their eggs on the tops of these mountains. The bombs destroyed most of their nesting sites.

The Odynei engineered chemicals to destroy the thick vegetation that surrounded the Canii den-homes. They used heavy machinery to cut down the trees. The Leethrians ate those plants and slept in those trees.

Ainona, the Leethrian Queen sent emissaries to the rulers of both peoples, each with the same request.

"Stop this insanity! You will destroy this world and all of its peoples. Make peace. This world is big enough to share."

Her emissaries returned with two almost identical responses.

"Mind your own business! This does not concern you. We would be rid of our enemy and dominate this world. If you interfere, we will crush you also."

The Queen sent for her most trusted advisers, seeking a plan to preserve at least a remnant of her people. Iliathu was chief among them.

"My Queen, the Canii have built ships to explore the stars, but these sit idle while they use their war vessels to bomb the Odynei. Perhaps we might make use of them and and find ourselves a new world to live on."

Queen Ainona saw the wisdom in this, so she sent her emissary back to the king of the Canii.

"Let us buy your spaceships in exchange for the Leethrian Crown Jewels. We will then leave this world and bother you no more."

The King of the Canii was not one to pass up a good deal, so he readily agreed to the Queen's proposal. In exchange for her jewels, he gave her three large vessels and two smaller ones. He ordered two of his finest pilots to train the Leethrians to fly them.

Because she was both wise and quick-witted, Iliathu was chosen to become a pilot. She and her friend Vendiatu would search the galaxy in the two small ships, looking for a new home world.

When the two had completed their training, Queen Ainona summoned them to her royal cave.

"Find us a suitable world where no other sentient species dwells. I would not have us to flee war again. It must be a warm, humid world, as that is where we flourish best. There must be high mountains on which to lay our eggs and trees in which to rest. There must also be plenty of food to eat. Go now, I am entrusting you with the future of our people. Please do not fail in your mission."

Iliathu and Vendiatu left their world, heading in different directions and hoping to see each other again.

* * *

Iliathu traveled for many days and investigated several planets, finding none that would make a suitable home for her people. Periodically she would stop on a world to find food and water and to allow the sun to recharge her ship's power source.

She was tired and hungry when she found a planet called T'Khasi, which orbited a star named Nevasa. It did not meet any of the Queen's requirements, but it was a good place for Iliathu to rest.

She landed her small vessel on the back side of a mountain, facing away from the large, populated city. There was a desert between her and the inhabitants. With any luck, she would not be discovered.

Iliathu found a small stream and filled her water bottles. Beside the stream grew edible vegetation, so she filled her stomach and her food containers as well.

The sun had begun to set and the air was getting chilly. She was preparing to load her cargo and leave when she heard a cry. Iliathu rushed toward the sound.

A small child was trapped against a rocky wall, a ferocious predator about to attack him.

Iliathu had no time to think. She extended her wings and jumped from her high perch. She swooped down and plucked the boy out of harm's way. She carried him to the mountain top, away from the creature, to a place where he could not see her vessel.

She allowed the child to rest and gather his wits about him before she touched his thoughts. She first felt his surprise and curiosity.

"You must be a Rushan, an air spirit. You flew on wings, you rescued me, and you can contact my mind without touching my body. I thought the Rushan were only a legend that my grandmother told me, but you are here. There is no logic in denying the truth. Thank you for saving me."

Iliathu considered for a moment. Far better for the child to believe that he had been rescued by a kind spirit than for him to know that an alien had landed on his world.

"You have correctly deduced my secret, child. I am Iliathu. What is your name and why are you alone in the desert?"

"I am S'chn T'gai Selith. I have come to the Forge to face my Kahs'wan Ordeal. If I am successful, my parents will find me a mate. I was on my way home when I cut my leg on a sharp stick. The smell of my blood must have attracted the le-matya."

"You are too injured to walk far. I assume you come from the city."

"Yes, I am from Shi'Kahr. My father's home is on the edge of the desert."

"When we have both rested and your leg has stopped bleeding, I will take you home. However, as I have saved your life, you must repay me with a song."

"I am not a singer, but perhaps I could play a tune I wrote for you on my kolchak."

"That would be acceptable. Please do."

Selith reached into his pocket and took out a small wooden flute. He played a simple but haunting melody. Iliathu thought that it was beautiful, so she committed it to memory.

Selith was very tired, so she allowed to sleep for a few hours. She covered him with one of her wings for warmth.

* * *

It was time to take Selith home. Iliathu shook him gently.

"Wake up, child. It is time to leave."

Selith nodded and Iliathu scooped him up in her arms. They flew over the desert in the darkness, reaching the path outside the gate of Selith's home in minutes.

"Selith, I will tell no one that you received help getting home. In return, you must promise to wait twenty years to tell anyone that you saw me."

"I promise, Iliathu. Live long and prosper."

"Dwell in peace, my child."

Iliathu spread her wings and was gone.

* * *

Several days later, Iliathu felt the presence of Vendiatu in her mind. He had good news.

"I have found it, my friend! I have found us a new world. Return home that we might gather our people and flee the war."

"I am on my way. Thank you, Vendiatu!"

Iliathu immediately changed her course and proceeded to Zerithu via the most direct route. Ten days later, she arrived home. What she found there made her very sad.

* * *

The war between the Canii and the Odynei had escalated in her absence. Most of the Leethrians had died or were dying from the new chemical weapons the Odynei had devised. Only about two hundred and fifty Leethrians would be able to make the journey to their new world.

Queen Ainona was among the dying. She summoned Iliathu and Vendiatu to her side. She wed them to each other by royal decree and pronounced them co-rulers over the Leethrians colonists. Then she bid them goodbye.

"Go. Take the strong ones and flee this place before it is too late."

* * *

S'chn T'gai Selith never forgot Iliathu the "Rushan," nor the promise he had made to tell no one of her until twenty years had passed. However, when the time came for him to be released from his silence, Selith realized than he would most likely not be believed. So instead, he wrote down his experience in the form of a poem. He set it to music, the tune he had writtten himself. He called it the "Song Of The Rushan."

When Selith's children were born, he taught his song to them.

* * *

They named their world Ainona in the late Queen's honor. In the spring of the first year, Iliathu laid her eggs on the mountain top above the royal cave. Fifteen sons and daughters survived and grew to maturity. The wisest and most gentle of these was called Nordu.

As was the way of Leethrian parents, Iliathu and Vendiatu taught their offspring everything they had learned themselves. Leethrians had perfect memories and passed all of their knowledge down from generation to generation. This took quite a bit of time, as a Leethrian could live as long as two millenia. It it said that they spend the first two hundred years learning. Iliathu even taught her children the melody she had learned from the little Vulcan boy, calling it S'chn T'gai Selith's Lullaby.

Once she had completed her education, because Nordu was so wise and caring, her parents called upon her to educate her younger siblings. Nordu did this for 578 years, until another arose to take her place. Then Queen Iliathu called her favorite daughter to her side.

"Nordu, you have helped your siblings for many years. Now it is time for you to do something to please yourself. You have my blessing to follow any dream that you wish."

"Thank you, Mother. I will need to think on this for a while."

Nordu thought for six months and eleven days.

On the twelfth day of the seventh month, a starship captain named Archer came to visit from a ship named Enterprise. He told marvelous stories of the worlds he had visited and their peoples.

Suddenly, Nordu knew exactly what she wished to do. She wanted to travel on a starship.

* * *

Vulcans also had perfect memories. Selith's children taught his song to their children, and so the "Song Of The Rushan" was passed on through many generations and centuries.

* * *

Within a year of Archer's visit, Ainona joined the United Federation of Planets. Nordu became the first of her people to attend Starfleet Academy. As she had always been one to care for others, Nordu decided to study nursing.

Over the course of many years, she had served aboard several starships and enjoyed several "shore duty" assignments at the Academy and various starbase hospitals. Her current assignment was USS Discovery.

Discovery was in the middle of an epidemic of the Vulcan Flu. Several crew members had contracted it during their shore leave on Risa. The sickest by far was a youngster of twenty-two years, Lt. J.G. S'chn T'Gai Spock.

Nordu remembered the first time she had heard his name. She had researched it and discovered that Spock's clan could be traced back to the time of Surak and that he was indeed a descendent of S'chn T'gai Selith.

Nordu had taken care of Spock many times. He often visited the Academy Infirmary with sprains and minor fractures, the consequences of his enjoyment of "extreme" sports. The nurses had nicknamed him "Cadet Boo-Boo" but never called him that to his face. Nordu thought that degrading, so she had merely called him "young one."

Spock had suffered a dangerously high fever while in the early stages of the Vulcan Flu. Dr. Ames, the ship's physician tried every anti-febrile medication at his disposal, but none of them worked. As a last resort, he and Nordu had placed the young Vulcan in an ice bath. Finally, the fever had broken.

However, Spock was very weak and a bit disoriented. Sickbay was filled with many distractions, so that he was unable to center himself and begin a healing trance.

Nordu found him lying on his bed in Sickbay, staring at the ceiling.

"Why have you not yet initiated your healing trance, young one? You will recover more quickly if you do so."

"I can not find my focus. There are too many distractions. In my quarters I would have my fire pot and soothing music."

Nordu considered for a moment. It was Gamma shift. There were only a few patients left in Sickbay, only Pike in this room with Spock. She did not reveal herself often, but just this once she might. Perhaps it would help the young one begin his trance.

"Computer, reduce lighting to 5%."

Nordu started to glow. First it was her silvery skin that developed an opalescence. Next a halo of light emanated from her teal blue hair. Nordu started to hum a Vulcan lullaby she had learned in her youth, more than nine hundred years before. As she hummed, she extended her bioluminescent wings, which changed hues with the tune's pitch. The room was awash with her colors. When the song had finished, Nordu's wings were beautiful shades of red and orange.

"There is your fire, young one."

There came no reply, for Spock was already in his healing trance. His last conscious thought:

"I wonder where she learned the "Song Of The Rushan"......


End file.
